Gigi’s Seasonal Post: Back to School Preview Part 4

August 23, 2026 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Usually, Gigi and I only post on Thursdays. But we have started doing an Annual Back to School shopping post in July and August which we have touched on in the past couple of years. First, a few things:

We believe financial literacy should be taught in schools so that everyone can make the best decisions on their purchases and investments.

We are not influencers. We are writers.

We do not receive money or any other compensation for our selections.

We ourselves have purchased multiple items from the establishments we list.

We see the value in purchasing quality clothes and accessories that will last and not fall apart and are made of natural materials with a few occasional non-natural exceptions.

We hate seeing students getting ripped off.

We believe in getting the best possible deal for the best possible items.

For this special post Gigi and I wanted to feature another sale which started this week we think is one of the best of the summer and it is France Luxe’s Sale on Sale. This is a fantastic site that sells high-quality hair accessories made in France and the L. Erickson line with some of their items made in Germany, especially the Swarovski® Crystal pieces.

This sale takes another 50% off France Luxe and L. Erickson sale items (discount automatically applied at checkout) and it usually happens twice a year: once in August and once in December. The selection is generous including hair bands, hair ties, barrettes, head bands, hair pins, hair spinners, combs, and even some jewelry. There is also a variety of colors to choose from. The sale just started this week and if you need hair accessories this is the very best time to pick some up. Please note for every 3 items you buy, you recieve one free mystery item. So, for instance, if you purchase 3 items you get a free item. If you purchase six items, you get a second mystery free item and so on. Gigi and I received a variety of different free items over time when we shopped there. Shipping is free if you purchase $50 or more.

France Luxe recently won a 2026 Cosmopolitan Magazine Holy Grail Beauty Award for their L. Erickson Grab & Go Pony Holders which are superb.

The Coyote Makes a Phone Call

August 20, 2026 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good afternoon. Gigi the Parti poodle here to introduce this week’s blog. Crispin and his cohorts had pounced upon the original catnapper who had kidnapped our beloved Demeter, and later Madeline and Edison. The woman in the silk camo dress and the woman in the olive trench coat stood stunned and terrified as two of the coyotes turned towards them and advanced.

“Gigi,” Bernard D. Bunny said hopping up to me, “I think the man in the Hummer might be getting out.”

“That evil dung beetle,” I cursed. “We must stop him.”

“I think he might have a baseball bat as well.”

“But of course he does. Ruffles, back up the van.”

“Back up the van,” Ruffles said. “Back up the van.”

Ruffles began backing up the van as the man with tattoos stepped out of his monstrosity and began tromping towards the coyotes. The man was stunned to see the van backing up towards him and he jumped back.

One of the coyotes pounced on the woman in the silk dress and another pounced on the woman in the olive trench coat knocking them both to the ground.

“Get off me, cur,” the woman in the olive trench coat yelled

The woman in the silk camo dress screamed and appeared most displeased to have a coyote standing on her chest. At that exact moment I realized I had forgotten to lock the passenger’s side door, because the man with the tattoos flung it open and grabbed me.

“Gigi!” I heard everyone in the van scream as the brutal beast began hauling me over to the Hummer.

“Gigi, Gigi!” I heard the twin dachshunds howling in unison.

Terror coursed through my arteries as the villain’s wretched breath heaved down upon my beautiful curls. My heart palpitated as it never has before. I despise being held and to be held by such a dreadful ghoul as this was enough to make me bite…which I did.

The tattooed man was most displeased by my behavior. He pulled his wounded hand away, stunned. It would have been a great moment of glory for me, had he not swatted me on the nose. I did not take kindly to this. I snarled and went to bite him again, when he pulled out a squirt gun and sprayed me in the face. I was shocked, wet, and upset. I tried to bite him again and water went up my nose. I snorted and wheezed. Suddenly, I was being shoved into a dreaded dog carrier. Or in this case a cat carrier. I flung my paws out and pressed them against the sides of the entrance to stop myself from being pushed inside. I barked a shrill ear-piercing bark, but it was to no avail. The man plucked my paws off the sides of the carrier, pushed me into the cavernous trap, and locked the door.

In the distance, I heard police sirens going off. I could tell they were getting nearer. Tattoo man climbed into his vehicle and started the engine. I barked wildly and chewed on the plastic bars of my cage. The man backed up the Hummer. I could still hear the desperate mews and barks of my beloved friends crying out for me. The man whipped the Hummer backwards, threw the vehicle into drive when all at once he was blocked in by police cars in front of him and in back.

Officers disembarked their prowlers, pointed guns at him and shouted, “Get out of the car with your hands up!”

Tattoo man turned off the engine and shook his head. He climbed out of the Hummer, dropped to his knees and held his hands up. Within moments, the police had zip ties around his wrists. Crispin’s fellow coyotes stepped off the two women, and they too had zip ties swiftly applied to their wrists. Crispin stepped off the original catnapper, trotted past the officers and over to the Hummer where I was still incarcerated in the cat carrier.

“See,” he said as he peered into the wretched cage at me with a smug grin, “I was right. I called the police.”

Until next week, I bid you adieu.

MY BOOKS

You can check out my books Chicane and all five installments of the Musicology book series Musicology: Volume One, Baby!, Musicology: Volume Two, Kid!, Musicology: Volume Three, Twist!, Musicology: Volume Four, Sweetie! and Musicology: The Epiquad on Amazon in Kindle and Paperback editions. You can also check out Musicology’s web site at www.musicologyrocks.com and vote for who you think will win Musicology!

BEST OF THE EMMY NOMINATIONS

SPIDER-NOIR (2026)-AMAZON PRIME

For the second week of the best of the Emmy Nominations, I’ve selected this fantastic entertaining spin on Spiderman. The show has received a total of eleven nominations for Outstanding Production Design, Outstanding Cinematography for a Series (One Hour), Outstanding Title Design, Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Original Dramatic Score), Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics, Outstanding Sound Editing for a Comedy or Drama Series (One Hour), Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama Series (One Hour), Outstanding Special Visual Effects in a Single Episode, Outstanding Stunt Coordination for Comedy Programming, and Outstanding Stunt Performance. One unique element of the show is it can be watched either in color or black and white. I chose black and white, which looks fantastic.

The show is based on the Spider-Man Noir comic book series which was originally released in February 2009. The story, set in the 1930’s in Manhattan, follows a middle-aged WWI veteran, now private detective, named Ben Reilly (Nicholas Cage who should have received an Outstanding Actor in a Drama Emmy nod). Ben has a drinking problem intensified by the fact that he believes himself responsible for the death of his beloved fiancée Ruby Williams (Amanda Schull) five years prior. He used to be The Spider, the city’s hero but after Ruby’s death he put his mask away. He now works with his long-time secretary Janet Ruiz (Karen Rodriguez who also deserved a Supporting Actress nomination) and occasionally relies on the assistance of his buddy Joseph “Robbie” Robertson (Lamorne Morris) a hard-working freelance journalist.

One day, Ben is hired by a man named Carmedy to investigate his wife, a nightclub singer named Cat Hardy (well-acted by Li Jun Li) for infidelity. But upon digging deeper, Ben finds Cat is not married to Carmedy, and she has some strange involvement with the mayor of Manhattan. He takes pictures of her and the mayor and decides to go to her with the negatives.

In addition, he’s been hired by a man named Winston (Lucas Haas) to hunt down a man named Addison (Jack Mikesell) whom Winston believes burned down the house of his employer, the highly powerful crime boss Silvermane (Brendan Gleeson who also deserved an Emmy nomination). Ben finds out Winston also hired another private eye named Donegal (Cameron Britton) to locate Addison.

One night both Ben and Donegal trail Addison to the Standard Oil Company. Donegal gets there first and Ben hangs back in the shadows. When Donegal tries to approach Addison, Addison shows he can self-ignite himself into flames. He tries to burn up Donegal, but Donegal shoots and kills him causing the highly flammable Standard Oil location to catch fire. Donegal and Ben both get out on time. Ben later goes to the nightclub where Cat performs in hopes of blackmailing her for the negatives only to find out there may be more men like Addison and him self with special powers.

Rounding out the cast are Cary Christopher as Frankie, a wisecracking orphan and Joe Massigal, Scott MacArthur and Jack Huston as Silvermane’s henchmen.

Open the Pod Bay Doors

August 7, 2026 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good afternoon. Gigi the Parti poodle here to introduce this week’s blog. Bernard D. Bunny pulled the van up to Chrispin’s abode, which was essentially the wooded area by the curb of the cul de sac where the van was parked before.

He calmly strolled up to the passenger’s side of the van where I was sitting. As he approached, I cautiously rolled down the window. He sat on his haunches and asked, “Where are the catnappers?”

“In the van”, I barked.

“You going to open the door?”

I narrowed my eyes. “Perhaps.” I turned to Bernard and said, “Crispin wants us to open the door.”

“Not a chance,” Bernard said. “He’s a bloodthirsty predator.”

“Which is why we drove the catnappers here to be delt with.”

“How are we going to get the catnappers out of the van if we don’t open the door?”

“A fair question.”

Bernard pointed his paw forward. “We could tell Crispin to stand way over there at the edge of the cul de sac and then we could have Charlotte and Ruffles slide open the side door, push the catnappers out and then slam the door back shut.”

“Good idea. Let me tell Charlotte and Ruffles the plan.” I hurried back to Charlotte and whispered the idea to her.

“I will be ready when you are,” she said.

Then I hopped over to Ruffles and told him the plan as well. “I can do that,” he said. “I can do that.”

“Fantastic,” I said and then hurried back to Bernard. “Let’s tell Crispin to move back to the edge of the cul de sac and we’ll open the door and roll them out and shut the door.”

“What are you doing?” the woman in the olive raincoat said.

“We’ve taken you back to where you started,” I said.

“This isn’t the parking lot.”

I ignored her and ran back to the passenger seat. “Crispin?”

“Yes,” Crispin said.

“I need you to go over to the opposite side of the cul de sac and we’ll open the door and roll them out.”

“Why should I do that?”

“You’re a blood thirsty predator.”

“I take offence to that.”

“I apologize but you need to see it from our point of view.”

He shrugged, lifted his paw and studied his claws. “Where’s my toy?”

“Don’t worry, I have your toy. My novelist got me a new one and I will bring it to you. And just remember, we don’t want you to attack we just want you to terrify.”

“Terrifying is my thing.”

“Great.”

“Which stuffed toy is it?”

“What?”

“Which stuffed toy is it?”

“A leopard.”

“Awesome.”

Crispin rose and began walking over to the other side of the cul de sac when a pair of headlights pulled in behind the van. Bernard looked in the rearview mirror and motioned for me to come back to the front. “It’s the man with the shaved head and tattoos,” he told me.

I looked up in the rearview mirror. The man turned off his headlights and started to dismount the garish orange Hummer. “Our plan remains the same. Let’s do it.”

“What about Crispin? He can’t take on all three of them.”

“I thought you said he was a blood thirsty predator.”

“He is but he’s still on our side.”

“You have a point. Let’s stick with the plan but not leave. If Crispin needs help, we still have the van.”

“Can’t the man just hop back in the Hummer and mow us over?”

“Belle, I have a job for you.”

“Okay,” Belle said meekly.

“I want you to hop up here on the dash and watch the man with the shaved head and tattoos. If he heads back to the Hummer, I need you to jump on the horn.”

“I can do that.”

“Good. Now we have an alarm system. Bernard, get ready.”

“Okay,” Bernard said.

“Charlotte, Ruffles, open the Pod Bay doors!”

Until next week, I bid you adieu.

MY BOOKS

STREAM OF THE WEEK: THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY (1966)-AMAZON PRIME, PLUTO, ROKU, TUBI

It’s hard to believe that one of the greatest westerns ever made was not nominated for a single Oscar. To be fair, it was a tough year with In the Heat of the Night, Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate, Cool Hand Luke and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner all nominated in the same year. Yet, there was still plenty of room for this incredible never a dull moment classic to take its place at the table.

If you ask your parents, or maybe grandparents, they will tell you before video, DVD, Tivo, and the Internet, every May for five days straight was Clint Eastwood Week. This meant every night, Monday thru Friday at 8:00 pm sharp you needed to be in your chair in front of the television ready to watch one of five great films starring a thirtysomething man who would become a movie star, composer, and four-time Oscar winner twice for director and twice for producer. And the zenith of all the cinema for that short run was this timeless western classic about three anti-heroes in search of buried gold.

The film was directed by the incredibly talented Sergio Leoni who is the mind behind the first two films about the Man with No Name. The story takes place during the Civil War where two outlaw drifters run a scam to collect bounty money. Tuco (Eli Wallach who should have been nominated for an Oscar for his landmark performance) is wanted…for a lot of crimes: murder, armed robbery, theft of sacred objects, kidnapping, rape, statutory rape, counterfeiting and passing counterfeit money, bigamy, desertion, inciting prostitution, receiving and selling stolen goods, using marked cards and loaded dice, highway robbery, cattle rustling, derailing a train to rob passengers, hiring himself out as a wagon train guide and deserting, misrepresenting himself as a Mexican general, intention to sell fugitive slaves, illegal postal pickup, assaulting a Justice of the Peace, and vandalism and arson in places of high authority.

Tuco (the ugly) is captured by the Man with No Name (the good) which Tuco refers to as Blondie (Clint Eastwood in his iconic role) and drug into the nearest town. The town then pays Blondie the bounty, and Tuco is put on a horse with his hands tied behind his back and a noose around his neck. When they are about to set the horse free, Blondie, an excellent marksman, shoots the rope sending the horse running with Tuco free on its back. These two have been pulling this con for a while.

In the meantime, a man dressed all in black (the bad) named Sentenza aka Angel Eyes (played with gleeful villainy by Lee Van Cleef), a gun for hire, hunts down a man family man named Stevens (Antonio Casas). Stevens, a former Confederate soldier knows the whereabouts of a man named Bill Carson (Antonio Casale) who knows where $200,000 is hidden. As Angel Eyes hunts for Bill Carson, Tuco and Blondie find themselves at odds with each other and in a moment of sheer luck stumble into knowledge about where the $200,000 might be.

Seasonal Post: Back to School Preview

July 4, 2026 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good afternoon and Happy 250th 4^th of July. Usually, Gigi and I only post on Thursdays. But we would like to start doing an Annual Back to School shopping post in July which we have touched on in the past couple of years. We are from the Pacific Northwest and are fans of one of our favorite northwest traditions, the annual Nordstrom Anniversary Sale. We are not, however, fans of fast fashion and believe in purchasing, as best as possible, clothes and accessories that are made of natural fabrics. We will discuss our beloved Nordstrom Anniversary Sale later after the catalogue comes out on July 6th. First, a few things:

We are not influencers. We are writers.
We do not receive money or any other compensation for our selections.
We ourselves have purchased mulitple items from the establishments we list.
We see the value in purchasing quality clothes and accessories that will last and not fall apart and are made of natural materials with a few occasional non-natural exceptions.
We hate seeing students getting ripped off.
We believe in getting the best possible deal for the best possible items.
We believe financial literacy should be taught in schools so that everyone can make the best decisions on their purchases and investments.

The reason we are doing a preview today is some of these online sales end this weekend or Monday and we think they are worth a look. Here they are:

Monica Vinader Summer Sale Final Markdowns

Monica Vinader makes excellent demi‑fine, refined jewelry. By demi-fine we mean her pieces are made from solid sterling silver, gold vermeil, 14k gold and real stones. She often does one of her best sales of the year at the end of June and early July. This year it is 60% off many sale items. If you are considering purchasing a quality piece of jewelry that will not go out of style and last for years, this is an excellent opportunity to pick up one or two of her pieces. She has Free US Shipping on $150, and her regular shipping is very reasonable. Last we checked for shipping to our location it was under $5.

Classic Hardware 31% off Sitewide

Classic Hardware is high quality small batch jewelry made in the USA. They are known for durable, expressive, hypoallergenic fashion jewelry. Their lines have been sold in Nordstrom and Disney. Their jewelry is lead and nickel free and made with solid construction. Amongst our pieces we have one of their Disney Tinkerbell bracelets as well as one of Gigi’s personal favorites, Scottie Dog drop earrings. They hold up very well and tend to be artsy and rockabilly in nature. The selection is large and a lot of fun and their prices are very reasonable. And at 31% their prices are outstanding. We highly recommend you check them out. Free US Shipping on $35. Coupon Code is WEBE31.

Levi’s Extra 50% Off Sale

Levi’s is a solid well-known clothing brand that has been around since 1873. Their clothes are easy to wear, wash well and make a great standard denim choice for the school year. Right now, they have an extra 50% of their sale items online. Which means if you see a pair of jeans on sale for $44.98 the actual cost of them is $22.49. And it isn’t just the jeans that are in the sale. There are also denim jackets, T-shirts, skirts, hats, etc. We also find they often have great prices in August as well. If you want to take advantage of some early school clothes shopping, we recommend checking them out. Make sure to carefully check the red writing at the bottom of the picture of the item to make sure it is specifically on the extra 50% off sale. Free US ground shipping on $75.

Happy New Year! One More Gift for You!

January 1, 2026 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Happy New Year! Since our weekly Thursday blog landed on Christmas this year, we put all five Musicology books up for free for three days. This was the first time we have ever offered all the Musicology books for free. As New Year’s Day has also landed on a Thursday, we are going to give out one more gift. From New Year’s Day until the end of Saturday 1/3/2026, we are offering our blog readers my short novel Chicane for free on Kindle. It is our way of saying thank you very much for reading and subscribing to our blog. We hope you enjoy it!

Here is the link for Chicane.

Good morning and Happy New Year. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here to make my first spectacular appearance of 2026. As you know, the neighborhood pets and I have been distraught over the disappearance of two of our feline friends: Dimiter the Persian and Madeline the British Shorthair. Everyone has been on edge. It has been a terrifying holiday season as neither one has turned up. Dimiter’s heartbroken sister Artemus has been caterwauling every night because her sibling is missing. A haunting sound if I ever heard one. As there have been coyote sightings, I have started buying groceries for Bernard D. Bunny and his sister Belle. This is no easy task at this time of year. The stores are crowded, and it is most difficult for a toy parti poodle such as myself to navigate my way around the store. I finally managed to learn how to drive the scooter. It is a bit of a stretch, but I can turn it on and navigate my way down the aisles. However, I have somehow managed to upset some of the senior customers. One even had the audacity to tell me poodles are not allowed to ride their scooters. How rude.

All the pets in the neighborhood have decided to spend today comforting Artemis. We are all going to her house for appetizers and sparkling water. Tomorrow we will restart our search for her beloved sister. Next week my novelist will restart her stream of the week. Until then, I bid you Happy Holidays. Adieu.

Dental Day

October 23, 2025 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good morning. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here to introduce my blog. Let me tell you this has been a most harrowing week. Every year the most hostile of events happens: Dental Day. Dental Day is where I am suddenly snatched off my novelist’s comfortable mattress at some unholy morning hour, put in my novelist’s car, forced to hear her growl and literally scream at traffic whilst I am driven in terror to the vet’s. Whilst there, I am set on a cold hard counter while the nurse gives my novelist a breakdown of the procedure. This stranger then takes me out of my novelist’s arms into a dreadful back room where my gorgeous front leg is shaved, a needle is painfully stuck into it, and after a while everything slowly goes dark.

When I come to, the nurse who took me into the land of horrors, is enthusiastically petting me. I slowly realize I am incarcerated, lying on a towel in some sort of stark minimalist cage. I have no idea what has happened or where I’ve been and my mouth feels like a feral kitten was shoved inside. There is numbness in the back of my jaw. I can feel the film of some gel on my eyeballs of all places, and I can hardly keep my lids open. My novelist is nowhere to be found. I lie there, groggy, terrified, and alone. If that isn’t shocking enough, suddenly, a plastic tube I didn’t realize was shoved down my throat is pulled out. Half the day has somehow gone by.

Then somewhere, sometime later, maybe in the midafternoon I am taken back to the room where it all began, and my novelist is there waiting for me. I have no idea how to respond. The creaky whining sounds I make seem foreign and I am confused. I just want her to hold me and get me out of this prison. She carries me as…Him pays them, pays them, mind you, for torturing me! My novelist carries me out to the car and sets me on a blanket on her lap. She holds me till we get home. She is most gingerly with me, no longer the maniac who screamed and yelled at traffic that morning. After we get out of the car, I retire to the office and collapse on my pillow near the window. I stay there most of the day sad, groggy, confused and in pain. I refuse to eat, refuse to leave the office until bedtime when my novelist puts me on the bed, opens my mouth and injects some sort of liquid between my teeth and I find some sort of relief from the pain and fall asleep. At least Dental Day is over for another 363 days. I shall try to forget about it for now and hope I am not emotionally traumatized. Until next week, I bid you adieu.

MY BOOKS

**STREAM OF THE WEEK: THE SUBSTANCE (2024)-HBO MAX**

Just in time for Halloween, this highly imaginative, highly innovative film is finally streaming on HBO Max. If you haven’t seen it yet, you really should. Inches from perfection this is a phenomenal tightly put together stunner of a movie that would have made Stanley Kubrick proud. Brilliantly and meticulously directed and written by Coralie Fargeat, had the third act starting with the moments after Sue’s bathroom scene up until its brilliant last shot been less over the top it would have been a masterpiece. Someone should have figured out at some point that this was no longer a horror film but rather a work of art and gone less for comical gruesomeness during the climax and more for a poignant message. Had that happened, it would have been the best film of the year and one of the best for years to come.

Exercise celebrity Elizabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore in a fearless well-deserved Oscar nominated and Golden Globe winning performance) is great at her job. Except that she has hit her fifties. Her producer Harvey (Dennis Quaid who is deliciously vicious here) wants a newer, younger star. He callously takes her to lunch on her birthday and fires her over a large bowl of shrimp. Understandably upset, Elizabeth gets into a car wreck shortly after and meets a young handsome Male Nurse (Robin Grier) who slips her a note in her coat pocket with a USB file for The Substance, a way to a younger better self. Skeptical at first, Elizabeth throws the drive into the trash. But upon finding out there is an audition for someone to take her place, she recovers the drive and decides to go through with it. She contacts The Substance (voiced by Yann Bean) who provides her with an address. Shortly after, she receives a small package in the mail. Inside is a keycard with a number on it in bold print.

Heading to a sketchy part of LA and into some sort of hidden doorway that only opens halfway, Elizabeth finds a rather modern small facility where a locker matching her keycard number has a package in it. She takes the package home, opens it and follows the instructions. This DNA kit leads to the birth, as it were, of Sue (Margret Qualley, in a stunning performance that for some inexplicable reason did not garner her a Supporting Actress Oscar nomination) a younger version of herself and from that point on, chaos begins.

The film rightly won an Oscar for Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling for Pierre Olivier Persin, Stéphanie Guillon, and Marilyne Scarselli.

Tears of Abandonment

August 14, 2025 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Gigi the parti poodle here and I can’t even say good afternoon because I am sobbing. On a poodle neurosis scale of 1-10 I am an eleven. My worst nightmare came true. I was right. My novelist abandoned me. Utterly abandoned me. It happened late Sunday afternoon. I was peacefully lying in the office on my pillow by the window as my novelist worked. Then, suddenly, the clock changed to 5:30pm and she scooped me up, slapped on my harness and leash, and whisked me out to the car. I hate cars. They are frightening and I never know where I am going when I am in them. I ended up in the clink. The clink is somewhere I have no idea how I got to or know how to find the path home from. I was taken to the clink in August a year ago where I was incarcerated for a week. It was one of the lowest points of my life. And this week, she took me there again.

During my stay, I met a rather kind Boston Terrier named Gemma. She was older and wiser than I, so I stayed close to her during the day. As it was a minimum-security facility, we would go out onto the porch in the mid-morning where we played checkers. Gemma was a master at checkers. I lost every game. But I did enjoy her company. She told me her owner often goes on business trips, and she stays here frequently. I told her how difficult it was for me to be away from my novelist for even a few hours. She told me I must try meditation. She said to request my novelist put on soothing music for dogs and then relax and know that she shall return in time.

My novelist returned around 6pm yesterday and I was very relieved. I barked and walked around in circles in the car the entire way home. She took me outside to touch the dry grass, and Bernard greeted me with open arms. I told him about Gemma and her suggestions and Bernard said she must be a very wise dog to give such advice. And so, as I write this with teary eyes of joy and relief I am listening to soothing music for dogs. Until next week, I bid you adieu.

MY BOOKS

**STREAM OF THE WEEK: RED EYE (2005)-NETFLIX**

If you have never gotten a chance to see this movie, make sure you catch it before it leaves Netflix on August 31. I am always fascinated when movies get a resurgence on Netflix. It often goes to show that audiences are craving films with something more to offer than people running around in capes and tights. I keep crossing my fingers and hoping there is a golden age of movies on the horizon. Or are we just heading for Armageddon? Anyway, this week’s pick is a whole lot of fun. Wes Craven directs this juicy little thriller written by Carl Ellsworth and Dan Foos. The plot is straightforward. A young woman named Lisa Reisert (Rachel McAdams) has the horrid misfortune of working as a manager at a high-end hotel. Because anyone who has ever worked in customer service at one point or another, knows what it’s like to be on the brink of becoming a killer. Lisa’s customers are like an exceptionally annoying trail of assclowns coming out of a miniature car. But for one reason or another she is a genius at her job. She knows how to juggle these dip wits like balls. She helps her poor coworker Cynthia (Jayma Mays who adds wonderful comedy to the film) via phone deal with them as they come at the poor woman like a rabid platoon of Nazis.

The reason Lisa is communicating with Cynthia by phone is she is heading for the airport to board a plane. She is catching the red eye flight on route home after attending her grandmother’s funeral. As she gets in line at Dallas Love Field, she meets a sweet young man named Jackson Rippner (Cillian Murphy). The two hit it off well and even find out that they are seated together on the same plane. But as the plane starts to take off Lisa begins to realize anyone knows a sweet young man with a name Jackson Rippner is bound to have ulterior motives. Rounding out the cast is Brian Cox who plays Joe Reisert, Cynthia’s father. And he is a much gentler paternal unit to her than he is when he’s running Waystar RoyCo.

Shower Curtains

June 12, 2025 ~ gigicatchesair ~ Leave a comment

Good morning. It is I Gigi the parti poodle here to introduce my blog. Today the shower curtain rod came down. This was a most distressing event. My novelist had to hold up the rod whilst I hurried over to the computer to watch a video on how to put it back up. It is one of those curved types that is held up by tension. This is the video I watched: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K03RkODZ42M

And so, this kind man showed us how to take the horrifying tangle of curtains, rod and rings off the bathroom floor and put it back up. Now, we figured out ourselves to remove the curtain and the rings first so hurrah for us (not to mention it is not part of the video). Anyway, I sat and studied his how to lesson intently. Of course, as all wise poodles do, I put on my blue light blocking glasses first as eye safety is paramount. Then I took notes which are never easy to do as one must understand I have paws and no opposable thumbs. I could hear my novelist shouting from the bathroom the blood was running out of her arms so I had bark back that it would take as long as it takes and then proceed to take notes with my paw.

When I finished writing, I hopped out of the office chair, retrieved a measuring tape, and trotted into the bathroom. I took the measuring tape and measured the distance from ceiling to rod to make certain the rod was even on both sides, also a challenge with paws. I then barked the instructions up to my novelist reading them off from my notes. She first had to put one arm down and then the other to allow them to recover and then she set the curtain against both walls and twisted the bar for tension. It was a challenge to get the ornamental ends snapped into place. The one went in without a struggle but the second required my novelist to get out her trusty step stool and angle herself correctly to pop it in firmly. We now have a working shower curtain and both of us learned a lesson in home improvement. I am certain Tim Taylor would be proud. Until next week, I bid you adieu.

MY BOOKS

**STREAM OF THE WEEK: BAD INFLUENCE: THE DARK SIDE OF KIDFLUENCING (2025)-NETFLIX**

Female psychopaths are exceedingly rare. Only 1 in 1050 women is a psychopath as opposed to 1 in 150 men. But they still exist and here is your chance to see one in the wild. Not to mention she’s a pedophile to boot. I don’t know about you, but I am not an influencer watcher. I don’t get it. I don’t need someone to tell me what dimwit products to buy with their stupid amateur videos. There are enough professionally made commercials out there hocking uninteresting junk that pimp it better with professional actors, directors and writers. But apparently this seedy low-rent schlock is hot. Especially to grown men who make up 92% of the audience for these kids shows. Picture that lurid debauchery if you will. You’d think this low-rent YouTube content would play to other kids but no. It plays to mentally deranged scum.

Tiffany Rockelle is a reptile who happened to give birth to a human daughter. Unfortunately, the daughter was pretty and talented and so like every garden variety psychopath this female lizard saw dollar signs in her third eye. She started putting Baby Jane Piper into pageants when the girl was three years old. And if that isn’t enough to make you shudder, when Piper turned eight, Tiffany shed her scaly skin, tossed her sweet little cash cow in her car and headed out on the road for Hollywood. Once there, Foxy Loxy started building her own little cult, luring children and their mothers into her cave to devour them. And devoured them she did. She picked up some barely legal sucker to be her boyfriend/director to film videos of the pre-teens hanging out with each other and having a good time calling them “the squad” because “the fresh meat” wasn’t catchy enough. Slowly, she got the mothers to give up their expensive apartments and “save money” by moving the kids into a house where she used the mothers as her minions while she had her boytoy film the kids 24-7. That is not an exaggeration. A typical practice of any psychopath: isolate your victims.

After awhile old Tiffany started doing what she had intended to from day one which is turn the films into her own *ahem* “personal fantasy videos”. And after that her actions became a long list of revolting illegal and immoral acts which you must see to believe. If you happen to read this post and you have any association whatsoever with this Ophiophagus hannah, get out now.